Moving towards Rain Cities

A beginning has now been made by cities across the country to provide some incentives to citizens to harvest rainwater on their own.

However, there is as yet no focused approach for the municipalities themselves to source at least a percentage of their requirements from rainwater. There is a need for a national movement for urban water harvesting.

The Ministry of Urban Development has nominated the Centre for Science and Environment as a Centre of Excellence in the area of “Sustainable Water Management”. As part of this effort, CSE has been conducting training workshops for municipal officials on Urban Rainwater Harvesting. The programme takes participants through the JNNURM requirements in the area of rainwater harvesting, the legal and institutional frameworks that need to be put in place, the setting up of a cell to undertake education and capacity building measures and to institute a system for focused and structured monitoring and maintenance programme.

"The Real Green Revolution is about rainwater harvesting. Let us catch water where it falls. Let it transform human lives. Let it change social existence. If this happens, the world will be transformed. The world will merely be an agglomeration of ecological-rainwater harvesting-democracies."
- Anil Agarwal
Founder-Director, CSE